D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily


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Interesting that Johnathan Tweet chime in about timing with rests changes the balance which is out of the designers hands. Why not make a control part of the design? Like in the One Ring?
It would be simple to do so.

Treat the game like a game. Stop worrying about verisimilitude.

Rest Update: You cannot take a long rest until you've had ~20 rounds of combat.

Done.

It's kinda hilarious though.

Such obvious things as "rest as often as possible" and "hit fast and hard" were completely overlooked in the game's basic design.

A later post by Mearls. "A party that unloads with their best powers simply breaks the system."
 
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Explaining Fran Healy GIF by Travis
 

I'm not sure what the fighter at-will vs. fighter alpha is? It shouldn't be 4e with fighter at-will powers. I'm guessing alpha is the more optimized fighter over what they make modules for.
 

It would be simple to do so.

Treat the game like a game. Stop worrying about verisimilitude.

Rest Update: You cannot take a long rest until you've had ~20 rounds of combat.

Done.

It's kinda hilarious though.

Such an obvious things as "rest as often as possible" and "hit fast and hard" was completely overlooked in the game's basic design.

A later post by Mearls. "A party that unloads with their best powers simply breaks the system."

It’s almost as if stating one’s assumptions when designing a system could actually help GMs running that system! Crazy!
 

I'm not sure what the fighter at-will vs. fighter alpha is? It shouldn't be 4e with fighter at-will powers. I'm guessing alpha is the more optimized fighter over what they make modules for.
He explains it in the thread. It means alpha strike vs at-wills. That is how the players play the game (alpha) vs how the designers assumed the players would play the game (at-will).
 


Mearls. "It's quite likely that a semi-optimized party can vaporize boss monsters in a round or even less."

LOL.

Referees been saying that about 5E for a damn decade. But nope, it's a perfectly balanced game.

To say nothing of players optimizing to the Nth. Ugh.
 

Wow, 20 rounds of combat between long rests, with combats assumed to last about 3 rounds means they were expecting approximately 6 or 7 combats between long rests.

Which is what the 2014 DMG recommended.

Which is what a lot of us have been saying for the past 10 years.
Yep. Despite the DMG saying exactly that, people have been denying it for a decade.
 

So the argument is, because the party will approach the BBEG with all abilities ready (e.g. fully rested) they need to be differently designed.

That's one take.

But a likely better one, the DM needs to understand and control the pace of play. There can be many ways to ensure the party can't always rest, certainly not after EVERY combat.
 

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